Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was somehow relaxing and refreshing, despite the challenging developments outside your window. Nonetheless, the world keeps spinning, so we are busy reviewing our to-do list and readying ourselves for another busy day. To cope, we have fired up the coffee kettle and are brewing a cup of stimulation — salted caramel mocha is the choice today — and invite you to join us. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits. Hope your day goes well, and do stay in touch. …
Merck (MRK) will stop developing both formulations of the Covid-19 vaccines the company was working on, citing inadequate immune responses to the shots, STAT writes. The company had adopted a different strategy from rivals by using a more traditional approach of focusing on shots based on weakened viruses. Work will continue on at least one of the vaccines, which is being developed in partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, to see if using a different route of administration would improve effectiveness.
Moderna (MRNA) is accelerating work on a Covid-19 booster shot to guard against the recently discovered variant in South Africa, CNBC tells us. The company says its current vaccine appears to work against the two highly transmissible strains found in the U.K. and South Africa, although it looks like it may be less effective against the latter. The two-dose vaccine produced an antibody response against multiple variants, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, which were first identified in the U.K. and South Africa, respectively.
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